Unquiet Dead Plot Role Info

[powersthatbe]

If you are not a plot infiltrator or someone with IC reasons to share knowledge available to plot infiltrators, please do not read the comments of this post.

If you ARE a plot infiltrator, please comment under your toplevel to let us know you've read it; please also pop over here to announce your plotroleishness to the game at large. We prefer that you do any confidential plotting with other plot-important folks in the comments here, rather than on plurk, and please comment no later than August 5th, 15th, 25th & September 4th with a brief (as brief as 1 sentence; as long as you like) summary of your activity during the week & plans for next week. These comments will help the mods shape mingles and plot events to keep the story dynamic and player actions important to the outcome. Likewise, comment at any time with any questions you may have, and a mod will get back to you within 36 hours at the outside.

Comments

Widowed Lover - Elphaba

[powersthatbe]

Background: You are a world traveler, a tourist, yes, but you don’t come from money - you pay for your travels by working in foreign aid. You’ve held humanitarian aid positions on every continent over the last decade. That was why you and Artie connected - you were, at first, looking for a donor for a struggling program, but you made a personal connection. You fell in love. Together you could do so much good in the world - and now Artie’s gone. All your local connections were through Artie, so you feel lost, disconnected, as well as grieving; overwhelmed by your inheritance, desperate for things to be different, furious that you’re suspected, baffled by the possibility of suicide or murder. You are in over your head, and may be prone to lashing out.
Motivation: Grief. As the plot progresses, you will move through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance - emphasis on the middle three.
Resources: 85 million pounds, whatever goodwill is extended to you as a character in Harrogate’s fairy tale, wilderness survival and first aid skills.
Thread Expectation: 3/week. Try to thread with characters of different backgrounds, and don’t be too quick to believe - as much as you want to believe - that you might really be able to contact Artie.
Skill: Power of Loss. Interrupt or disrupt any speech, spell, action, or mental influence once a week by expressing the depth of your rage, sorrow, and confusion. If a nearby spirit is gripped by a similar emotion, you will perceive one another clearly.

Re: Widowed Lover - Elphaba

[wickedestwitch]

Beautiful!

Re: Widowed Lover - Elphaba

[wickedestwitch]

Real question:

How much (if anything) does she know about how her wife died?

I'm fine with her having no idea and "suddenly dead wife one morning" being the thing too.

I also figure the only reason she hasn't left is both trying to prove her own innocence and the police have a 'shall not leave the city' on her.

Innkeeper's Heir - Hiroshi

[powersthatbe]

Background: Sometimes all you can do against the darkness is light a candle. Even before the recession and terrorist scares, you’ve always found the world a frightening place, and your little breakfast nook is meant to be a domestic sanctum against politics, against fear and deprivation, against, well, evil. You like caring for people, and because you see the world as darker than they do, you know they need a lot of caring for. The family ghost stories you were raised on say this town is an evil place, but it’s an evil place full of good people who deserve all the comfort you can bring them, and until you started seeing signs that ghosts were on the move, you thought you could bring that to them. Now… you don’t know how your candle can survive this darkness, and you know calling attention to it will only make others think you’re mad - and then, they’d stop coming to you for comfort.
Motivation: Generosity: you genuinely wish to help others do better in their lives. Fear: you believe the stories, and are terrified what will become of everyone now that they’re proving true.
Resources: Anything a reasonably successful bed-and-breakfast owner of good reputation would have access to, plus a history of ghost stories - feel free to ask the mods what stories you might know about any supernatural rumor or occurrence you run across.
Thread Expectation: 2/week. Look out for anyone who seems lost & alone!
Skill: A Cup Of Tea. A cup of tea, properly prepared by a fireplace and served with toast and jam, can make almost anyone relax and feel at home, momentarily easing their fears, stresses, and paranoias. There is no limit to how often you can use this skill - but it isn’t just the tea - it’s the bustling in the kitchen, the warm hearth, the toast, and the personal attention, so it only works on one person at a time. Your tea can calm a panic, make a suspicious stranger feel comforted and welcomed, ease shock, divert rage, numb sorrow - but only as long as the tea holds out.

[all_onis_are_true]

Nice dude watching a train wreck, got it. He'll appreciate the tea-making ability later.

Re: Innkeeper's Heir - Hiroshi

[all_onis_are_true]

A random question: We're thinking of making Hiroshi Ambrose's descendant. Is the appearance of the ghosts a new thing, or could part of the reason behind Hiroshi's belief stem from having a ghost that just won't flipping leave and having to keep that a secret?

Re: Innkeeper's Heir - Hiroshi

[all_onis_are_true]

A few questions for week 3:

1. Would it be out of the question that the family has been writing down the various ghost stories in town in addition to oral tradition?

2. Were there any survivors in the theater fire? I have ideas for how the full story of what happened would have survived.

3. Do I need anything specific to induce lucid dreaming, or can I just choose to let it happen? I'm thinking he might have some hedge magic he's documented that can help with that.

Museum Curator - Yakumo

[powersthatbe]

Background: Harrogate residents suffer from a sort of deliberate amnesia, a refusal to peer too deeply into dark mysteries, but you have always rushed in where others fear to tread. Studying old records, talking to the marble-deprived at the rest homes, listening in over tea or a pint, you have always wanted more than anything to be a spider in a web of information, in the know. You’ve read some damned disturbing and unverifiable rumors over the years, and always wondered why sheep on the north moors vanish when nobody’s found a new bog or sinkhole in ages. Artie’s death is a prime example - no-one seems to know exactly what caused that accident, if accident it was, but the police have concluded their inquest and are ready to pack it in. Not you. Something is happening here, and you won’t stop until you know what.
Motivation: Nosiness. You wish to be involved in and informed of everything that is going on.
Resources: The museum collection, and your own curiosity. If you have any questions about local history, let the mods know & we can fill you in.
Thread Expectation: 2/week. Get up in people’s business!
Skill: Quid Pro Quo. Once a week, you can loosen someone’s lips by offering one genuine secret to trade for theirs. You must have gathered this secret by mundane means (you can’t simply gather one secret, then use this skill to trade for a fresh one every week by using last week’s gain).

[cloudpotter]

EXCELLENT

I have a bundle of questions right off the bat, if that's okay!

1. Are there any ghostbound items in the museum?
2. Are there any items in the museum that Investigators from the previous Harrogate Jaunt would recognize?
3. For gossip-related reasons, has the population of Harrogate been decreasing? If yes, is the town small enough for him to know if it's mostly moving-away or death that's causing the decline?
4. Can he have a dinky conspiracy theory website about Harrogate? pretty please
4a. and also a semi-successful YouTube channel about paranormal things that features discussion about Harrogate way too often
4b. basically can he be a conspiracy nut on the internet in his spare time
5. How much information is in the museum about the things that happened during the previous Harrogate Jaunt? Are there like, council restrictions on what he can and can not display from that particular collection?

and 6: Would it be okay if he had the museum in a sort of 'open house' state in the wake of the funeral, to encourage all the tourists in to see all the history of Harrogate and convince some that it's weird, man?

[all_onis_are_true]

This guy seems like the sort who would try to wheedle things out of a dude. Maybe have him bothering Hiroshi?

[cloudpotter]

Question regarding the skill! Does the secret have to be actually factual? I'm assuming that 'genuine' means 'something that is actually legitimately on the low-down', so if for example Skye has some incorrect information that he thinks is fact (but is actually false) and is a genuine secret, and he shares that - does that qualify for the skill?

Re: Museum Curator - Yakumo

[youandyoualone]

SO HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOLOTUBE GETTING TAKEN DOWN THIS WEEK? AS IN THE NIGHT BEFORE THE NEW MINGLE STARTS?

Doubting Exorcist - Altair

[powersthatbe]

Background: There’s a reason you’re all alone at Saint Bruno’s, rather than being gathered back into the fold in another cloistered community. The Church knows - or knew - that Harrogate was a source of otherworldly sorrows, and Saint Bruno’s is meant to keep the vigil against the forces of darkness. But in decades, you have glimpsed nothing demonic - rumors, yes, but evils all too banal and human have dominated this town, with no need of grim, Satanic aid. Between that, and the church insisting you stay but not sending anyone to aid you in this allegedly vital post - that is where your bitterness and doubt took root. Why, as a member of an order pledged to live in community and worship, must you be alone? Does this truly matter? And if there is nothing for you to fight against… is there anything for you to fight for?
Motivation: Confusion. You feel increasingly lost and are seeking a solid ground in your life.
Resources: The church library (full of forbidden tomes you may be able to put to good use); the goodwill of the town. Research is dangerous, and you are aware of this, but you can bring questions about the eldritch to the mods if you’re willing to pay for your answers with a little more sanity and a little less certainty.
Thread Expectation: 2/week. Provide spiritual counsel, even if it makes you feel like a fraud to act as if you possess any wisdom.
Skill: Comprehend It Not. You have a natural passive resistance to any supernatural force so long as you know for certain that it exists and endangers you; and you take no trauma or corruption from active eldritch research so long as you do not believe in eldritch forces. You have no passive resistance to powers you do not believe in, and are vulnerable to corruption once you are certain the eldritch is real.

Re: Doubting Exorcist - Altair

[theflyingone]

lmao so eldritch things work opposite of bog-standard supernatural things

ETA: Is he allowed any lay staff?

Week 1

[theflyingone]

Tracking for all this Jaunt's threads

Father Anthony Brown was asked by the priest presiding over the funeral to ward off what he had perceived as some sort of evil. Tired of hoaxes being ascribed to tenets of his faith, and ever the skeptic, he nevertheless did his brother in Christ a favor and attempted to bless the cemetery. He told anyone who asked that he had sensed no evil while doing it. He was vague about the silhouettes in the rain, saying he'd like to seek out the mundane explanation before assuming the supernatural.

He invited a few people over for tea in his library, and they had a glance at both his exorcism books and the titles of the Eldritch-related books on a high, dusty shelf. He looks at them with distaste for sensational horror that does not edify, and wishes his superiors would let him get rid of them.

James the innkeeper's heir invited Father Brown over for some of his tea. To his disappointment, he confirmed Father Brown as a skeptic.

Later in the mingle, Father Brown was attacked by Phillip's infiltrator, an Eldritch-experiment shadowchild. He'll be discharged from the hospital with slightly gnawed ankles and bog-standard nightmares by next mingle.

Week 2

[theflyingone]

Father Brown was released from the hospital after the attack from Phillip's infiltrator, an Eldritch-experiment shadowchild. Against orders to rest after an "animal" attack, he contacted his superiors, who said he should look for an agent of evil. He told this last bit to Ambrose/Bruce. He went to the sinkhole, but not in, to draw anti-evil marks, mostly Benedictine crosses.

He visited James the innkeeper and told him the truth about the attack. In the same thread he will offer him a blessed object as protection, probably a Medal of Saint Benedict and copies of prayers.

In progress: I may have him witness Zed's taxi crash and talk to the escaped passengers who may know it was the work of an evil spirit.

Next week: His health will continue to flag as he loses sleep. I want to try to get him haunted by more people. He will continue to hunt for the "agent of evil." Otherwise, he's been largely ineffective.

Week 3

[theflyingone]

St. Bruno's priory continues to be a shelter for anyone seeking shelter. I'm not sure how Father Brown is doing in the aftermath of his big exorcism. I imagine that even if he were indisposed, his staff would continue to house anyone who had already sought shelter. I have no other plans because working during the heat wave killed my everything last week.

Queen's Agents - Delaunay & Dakki

[powersthatbe]

Background: You have been MI6 agents on counterterrorism duty since you finished your first tour of duty as Royal Marines. Both of you (unrelated, to your knowledge) orphans, England as a nation has provided for you since your youth, and you love your country as any child does a parent. Such an upbringing, however, leads you to view political ruthlessness as utterly normal - as a spy, an assassin, an agent provocateur, you have no scruples on your own behalf. England is more important than you, or anyone. This cool, professional detachment serves you well, although it makes human relationships tricky. At the same time, however, you behave with the polish and politesse expected of any lady or gentleman, because propriety is a British value, and your manners are impeccable.

Your most human trait, perhaps, is that you hate to see the innocent, the young, or the patriotic ill-served by authority. Those moments of fondness, you believe, make you stronger agents, rather than weaker ones. And certainly - as grim as things are, as far outside your experience as what is about to take place may be - there are such people to shepherd here.
Motivation: Patriotism. You will do what you must to protect your country, no second thoughts.
Resources: The legal authority to do practically bloody anything you like.
Thread Expectation: 1/week. Look for anyone behaving suspiciously.
Skill: Think of England. You can endure any single fatal, disabling, or debilitating attack and have a moment afterward for one brief response or strike before you succumb.

Re: Queen's Agents - Delaunay & Dakki

[youandyoualone]

o7

Read and willing! Lampy, let's plot our working relationship.

Sundered Lover - Allura

[powersthatbe]

Background: Artie Grove (Arthur or Artemis) was born in Harrogate twentysomething years ago to an unremarkable middle-class family, a cabbie mother and social worker father who instilled a love and knowledge of the community in you, but who wanted more for you. Modeling and acting as a child lead to a starring role as a teenager in the Conan and Valeria movies, which made you rich - but not without cost. When your father was diagnosed with cancer, you could pay for his treatment, but not be by his side for the last years of his life. When you were in college, only filming in the summers, your mother left the country with thirty million pounds - a gift, you told everyone, so that she could travel the world. But you were left profoundly alone, the bright center of a town that adored but did not truly know you. You wanted to help this town - and met your future spouse, a traveling aid worker, who broadened your horizon and showed you there was an entire world you could help. A mutual need to sacrifice in the service of others drew you together, the one person who saw and understood you - and then.

You don’t know what happened. You woke up in town and found it empty, eerie, fog-shrouded. Confused, alone, you tried to understand what happened to you, to remember through the black shroud on your memory of the weeks since your wedding. You have met others in this place who say that you are dead - that this is the afterlife. But that cannot be. You have lost so much - you won’t lose your love, or let them lose you.
Motivation: Lost love. You don’t understand what has happened to you, but you would do anything for your loved one.
Resources: Innocence and optimism.
Thread Expectation: 2/week. For the first week at least, try to generate CR with fellow spirits, before you understand you can contact the living world.
Skill: Power of Hope. Once per week, interrupt, calm, or disarm any emotional outburst or frenzy temporarily by expressing your belief that things can be made better. If any living being nearby feels a similar emotion, you can perceive one another for the duration of the thread.

Re: Sundered Lover - Allura

[reallymean]

Awesome.

Re: Sundered Lover - Allura

[reallymean]

So how complete is the hole in her memory? Would she able to recall bits and pieces of the weeks since the wedding? How about the wedding itself? Or is it more "you got married/were about to marry, and now you have the sense of time having passed and people are telling you you're dead"?

Troubled Ancestor - Ace

[powersthatbe]

Background: When you died in the 1897 Theater Fire, trampled and suffocated and half-mad, you did not know what would become of your family, and they were your only thought. Perhaps that is why, when so many others moved on, you did not. It was years before you could hear and see them except in moments of great loss, and you learned quickly that it was difficult to love them when you spied too much, and moderated yourself accordingly. Still, you were so far behind, you could never catch up, never fill that hole in your heart with little glimpses - and so you have remained, following them through the generations. Now, you have several living descendants, some distant enough to have forgotten they are related to one another. But for the first time since the Fire, the number of spirits is growing faster than it is dwindling - and while you do not know precisely why, or what it means, you know that you must work hard to prevent your descendants from joining you.
Motivation: Filial loyalty. Concern for your family is the most powerful force in your afterlife.
Resources: Long experience of being a spirit. What you don’t know about this isn’t worth knowing - so be sure to direct any questions you have to the mods, so we can keep you well-briefed. Feel free to pick at least three or four and no more than six to eight descendants to look after - neither of the Lovers, but any other living plot infiltrators are valid targets (as long as it isn’t ALL of them) - and you can reach out to any infiltrators whose players want friendlier hauntings.
Thread Expectation: 2/week. Spend some time with both the living and the dead.
Skill: Heart to Heart. When you have a genuine and immediate fear for a loved one, you can reach them immediately across any boundaries to warn them or communicate with them, once a week. Depending on the circumstances, they may not understand this communication, but they will receive it.

[knightceties]

Plot info: read! o7

I have a concept in mind that I want to run by mods, just to make sure what I have in mind is workable.

In the original Harrogate, Ace was a kind of handyman/roadie equivalent for the theater troupe, and I kind of want to run with that backstory for him as a ghost. My idea was that perhaps he had been in a relationship with a woman in the theater troupe, who survived the fire relatively intact and ultimately settled down in Harrogate and had their child. Does this seem workable as a backstory?

More than that, Ace's personality is pretty, uh, protective. So even if not watching them 24/7, he would probably try to take care of his descendants in small ways, like, if they lost something important, he would make sure they turned up, and stuff like that. People who wronged or harmed them meet mysterious and/or violent ends. Would such shenanigans be within the scope of ghostly powers?

I guess this kind of leads to a couple more general questions, like...

1) What kind of ghost powers would he have anyway?

2) Would the infilghost network/liminal ping him at all?

Evil Spirit - Bernkastel

[powersthatbe]

Background: You served the King In Yellow in life, because you craved the abilities, the domination, which you could gain by such service. But in death and failure, you were cast off - and that is good. For decades you have studied to become your own power, until you unlocked the ability to bind the dead, to summon and hold them. As the apex predator of the afterlife, now you have a chance to conquer both worlds, living and dead, to make sure that there is no happiness that does not emanate from your happiness, no reward you do not share, that there is only your will and the Outer Darkness, for any in life or death. When you have gathered enough power, you will be a god yourself. And that… that will be a start.
Motivation: Power. You will do whatever will increase your own ability to manipulate others and control the course of events.
Resources: Incredible Eldritch Power, Long experience of being a spirit - what you don’t know about this isn’t worth knowing - so be sure to direct any questions you have to the mods, so we can keep you well-briefed.
Thread Expectation: 3/week. Order your minions about, terrorize and/or bind other spirits; possess & torment the living.
Skill: Trap the Dead. You can use this ability in one of three ways, once a week (in-Jaunt) or once a month (after Jaunt): to turn the nearby restful dead into restless spirits; to program restless spirits near you with an imprint, suggestion, or desire from your own mind; or to place a single spirit inside an object and bind it there permanently, creating a Ghostbound Item. The three uses of this skill can be taught, individually, to any Spirit with Eldritch Knowledge, but you alone can do all three.

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

I have only one response to this. IIITS PERRFECT!

Mad Minions - ?????

[powersthatbe]

Background: You have few remaining memories of life that do not involved being a devoted servant of madness together with your brethren in the cause. Mayhem is your modus; jealousy of the living your jam, sadism your… something that starts with s.
Motivation: Madness. You have been corrupted by alien and evil powers and have an amoral desire to increase chaos and suffering.
Resources: One another.
Thread Expectation: 1/week. Be up to no good.
Skill: Strength In Numbers. Any time you outnumber your opponents, skills which you, your allies, and your opponents all share work slightly more powerfully for you. You will win possession struggles, use poltergeist telekinesis slightly more powerfully or precisely, etc. This advantage does not guarantee victory - it gives you the edge in brute force, not in tactics.

[whydoyoushine]

WHY HELLO THERE